1. Field of the Invention
The improved safety stop switch has application in many specifically different fields in which there is a need for a positive and rapid shutdown of governed equipment. Typical such applications are in belt or related types of material conveyors, production lines, elevator equipment, other material handling systems, cranes, assembly lines, mines, quarries and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various producers market safety stop switches of the general rope or cable-operated type of the present improvement. However, all are to my knowledge subject to serious drawbacks of one sort or another. For example, in some instances the switch, after being tripped to presumably cut off a supply of electrical power to an operating system of the sort mentioned in the Field, can be just as readily be re-set accidentally (and often disastrously) to restore said system to a powered condition, as by an inadvertent application of force to the rope or cable or the latter's operating arm.
In other instances, competing controls comparable in effectiveness to that of the present improvement require duplication of parts, multiple limit or microswitch units, etc., with the further complications of installation and maintenance wiring attendant thereto. While the present unit envisions a resort of two switches to afford separate audible or visual alarm signals, the basic switch unit of the invention needs only one snap-action switch which may be normally open or normally closed as hooked up with simple conventional wiring.